Retirement planning

Pension income planner

Model how your workplace pension, a separate defined benefit pension (final salary) and the State Pension combine into income after you stop working. All figures are in today's money (real terms) - enter a growth rate net of inflation.

This is my personal tool for information only - NOT financial advice

About this tool

I built this because I wanted to see the real impact of my workplace pension - what a change to my contribution rate actually costs in take-home pay, and what my pot, a defined benefit pension and the State Pension might combine to in retirement. Nothing I could find pulled all of that together the way I needed, so I made my own.

Where to start

  1. On the Pension income planner tab, fill in the Key inputs - your current age, your pension pot value now, and the age you'll start taking it - then your gross salary and your current pension contributions (yours and your employer's, as a % or a £ amount).
  2. Add anything else that applies: a final salary (DB) pension, the State Pension, and an investment growth rate. The chart then shows the pot you're on track for and the retirement income it could produce.
  3. Switch to Salary sacrifice impact - your salary and current contributions carry across. Set a Proposed contribution a little higher and read the banner: what it costs your monthly take-home pay, what it adds to your pension, and what you save in Income Tax and National Insurance.
  4. Go back to the planner to see how that higher contribution changes your pot and income at retirement. Use Remember entries (top right) to keep your figures in this browser for next time.

The point worth internalising: a small drop in take-home pay buys a much larger increase in your pension contribution. Contributions made by salary sacrifice go in before Income Tax and National Insurance are taken, which makes it the most tax-efficient saving lever available in the UK - and the first place to look before any other extra saving.

The two tabs work together. Salary sacrifice impact shows what a proposed contribution rate does to your monthly pay, your total contribution and your tax and NI - current against proposed, side by side. Pension income planner carries it forward: your pot and contributions compounding to retirement, then a phased drawdown alongside your DB pension and the State Pension. Your salary and contribution rates are shared between the two, so a change on one tab flows through to the other.

I also wanted a clear view of what each rate does to my tax bill. Why give away your hard earned income to the government (to squander), when it could be working harder for you?

- Jon

Pot at retirement (gross)

£0

Tax-free cash lump sum

£0

Pot left for drawdown

£0

Pot funds target income until age

—

Income at retirement

£0/yr

Income once all sources start

£0/yr

Pot growth to retirement

Projected DC pot value, by age, in today's money

Age at each bar · contributions + investment growth, compounding to retirement

Phased retirement income

By age, in today's money

Lets the final salary pension and State Pension keep showing after the DC pot runs out.
Pension pot drawdown Final salary pension State Pension Target salary reference

Age at each bar · scroll to see later years

View as a table
AgePot drawdownFinal salary pensionState PensionTotal income
Assumptions & notes
  • Everything is shown in today's money - the growth rates you enter should already be net of inflation, and DB/State Pension amounts are held level in real terms.
  • Investment growth can differ before and after retirement, since many people shift to lower-risk investments once they start drawing an income - the post-retirement rate applies to whatever's left in the pot each year, however you choose to draw it down.
  • Total yearly contributions are your salary sacrifice plus the employer contribution, held flat in real terms and compounding annually at the growth rate until retirement. Each side can be set as a % of salary or as a £/month amount, linked through your salary; whichever you set last is held when your salary changes, and the other is re-derived.
  • Under "Carry-forward contribution limits" you set the maximum total contribution (annual allowance + carry forward) for the next tax years. The current tax year is always modelled at your current rate - it's only flagged if that rate is over the limit you enter - while later years are stepped down to whichever limit applies (the two named years, then the standard annual allowance). Limits bite only when your current rate exceeds them, and only when at least one year's limit is set, so lowering your contribution rate later removes the step-down automatically. The comparison figure holds your current rate flat to retirement to show how much a projection without the step-down would overstate. This is a total-contribution model (employee plus employer) - it does not calculate your actual carry-forward allowance and ignores the tapered annual allowance and the money purchase annual allowance (MPAA); confirm your own headroom before acting.
  • Salary and the contribution rates are shared with the Salary sacrifice impact tab (its Current column) - edit them on either tab and the other updates to match.
  • If you take tax-free cash, it's removed as a one-off lump sum at your DC retirement age; the level drawdown is then calculated on the pot that's left.
  • With "Level amount" strategy, the pot pays a level income from your retirement age, sized to reach zero by the age you set it to end - independent of how long the chart shows, so the final salary pension and State Pension can carry on after the pot runs out.
  • With "Target income" strategy, the DC pot tops up whatever your final salary pension and State Pension don't cover, up to your target - so it draws less (or nothing) once they start paying. If the pot runs out before the target is covered, income falls back to just the final salary pension and State Pension.
  • Either strategy is a simplification of real drawdown, which varies with markets.
  • The final salary pension is paid unreduced from whichever start age you choose - this tool does not model early/late retirement factors. It can revalue each year between now and that start age at the rate you set (0% keeps it flat), then stays level in real terms once in payment.
  • This is a planning illustration, not financial advice. For your actual State Pension age and forecast, check gov.uk/check-state-pension.